Sorrisniva - Alta

My sons a friend and I stayed here for the Fishing and general sightseeing and we had an unbelievable experience in July /August 23 . The owners are first class as are their staff . I will bring my family back here for Xmas and can not wait . This is truly a beautiful part of Norway well worth visiting a warm family atmosphere awaits who ever visits here.

My partner I could not have asked for a more memorable 5 days in Alta all thanks to Sorrisniva. Building our Norway itinerary around this 5-day package was the best decision we could have made. From beautiful Canyon hikes to riverboat tours Sorrisniva is the perfect place to experience the midnight summer. Alongside the amazing accommodation itself (beautiful rooms with stunning views amenities) the restaurant Maku is truly a top tier establishment (we did the 3/5/8 course tasting menus) and were blown away by the creativity, time detail into each dish. You really have the best of both worlds there: Amazing food within a secluded, beautiful relaxing location. All in all though, hands down the best part of the trip was the people, guides staff of Sorrisniva. Not only warm, friendly, knowledgeable but they really care about making your trip the best they can at every point. If you like unique, adventurous memorable experiences, this is the place to go. 11/10 would recommend.

My wife and I toured this beautiful ice hotel while visiting Alta, Norway. The owner, chief ice engineer and artist greeted us. He is 80 years young with the energy of a 30 year old. The interior was huge with several igloo style room with reindeer covered ice beds. Lots of beautiful ice sculptures along the bar, interior lobby and rooms. There is even a child’s slide and playroom. You can even get married in hotel private ice chapel. This years theme is Africa, so be prepared to lots of interesting African wild animal sculptures. Every room is unique. Owner is retiring this year so he went all out on the beautiful sculptures. Drinks at the bar are delicious and ice cold. Great place to spend a night for couples who enjoy snuggling. We enjoyed our visit and so will you.

This hotel and experience is promoted and billed as a one of a kind trip but after spending two days there we were underwhelmed. That is not discounting the incredible ice hotel that they build every year but you don't need to spend the huge premium and spend a night there to experience it. It is a thing of beauty but also seems to be a revolving door of tourist from the cruise ships coming and going and if you are spending a night in there you have to put your belongings in a small locker and the rest of your items in a communal closet. During the day when your not on an excursion your only options for some peace and quiet is to share another small common area with some couches and a fire with everyone else staying in the ice hotel that night. The excursions were vastly over promised and under delivered. We did the king crab experience, promoted as an experience where you will actually be loading pots and pulling up others to see what you caught. Well not exactly.... After putting us in a boat we drove for 45 min to a crab pot. Turns out the crab pot he drove us to has a crab that was caught months ago, he takes tourists out there, they take a picture, he feeds it, and then you head back. What the heck!?! I felt like I was at a zoo experience but much colder. Then we did the northern lights experience and after doing a couple at other lodges we know it is never a guarantee to see the lights but based on the time of year odds were in our favor. They oversold the excursion so they got a coach bus to take us around. Seemed odd since the lodge is in a great desolate location without a lot of light pollution but we went with it. They then proceeded to drive us to two different parking lots and the side of a road. Needless to say, we didn't see anything and how could you with all the overhead lights, etc. This was a joke and waste of 3.5 hours in addition to being expensive. The following night we used our rental and went on the remote roads around the lodge and saw some amazing northern lights. To summarize this lodge is overpriced and under delivers from food pairings that are closer to 2-3 star resorts and excursions that seems to be setup for volume\sales vs unique experience. The ice hotel is an amazing creation though and instead of staying there it would be worth a 30 min detour to see as you stay at another lodge in the area.

Awesome Awesome Awesome If you're ever in the Arctic Circle this is a must do, just so cool (literally! This year's theme was Africa but (obviously! it changes every year and is a visitor attraction I don't think I would tire of seeing Grab a wee drink in an ice glass too, cracking wee vodka (non alcoholic version available too Location: 5